Genomic evidence for low genetic diversity but purging of strong deleterious variants in snow leopards

• Published in: Genome Biology Vol. 26; no. 1; p. 94
• Main Authors: Yang, Lin, Jin, Hong, Yang, Qien, Poyarkov, Andrey, Korablev, Miroslav, Rozhnov, Viatcheslav, Shao, Junjie, Fu, Qiaomei, Hernandez-Blanco, Jose Antonio, Zhan, Xiangjiang, Yu, Li, Alexandrov, Dmitry, Dai, Qingyan, Munkhtsog, Bariushaa, Du, Xin, Munkhtsog, Bayaraa, Ma, Liqing, Chen, Wanlin, Malykh, Sergei, Jin, Yipeng, He, Shunfu, Zhang, Tongzuo, Wu, Guosheng, Shi, Yonghong, Wei, Fuwen, Hu, Yibo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central 14.04.2025; BMC
• Subjects: Amino acids; Animals; Asia; Biogeography; Climate change; Conserved sequence; Deleterious variants; Demography; EPAS1; Evolution; Evolution, Molecular; Gene Frequency; Genetic diversity; Genetic load; Genetic structure; Genetic Variation; Genome; Genomes; Genomic diversity; Genomics; Himalayan region; History; Inbreeding; metagenomics; Microclimate; Mountains; Nucleotide sequence; Panthera - genetics; Panthera uncia; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Population; Population decline; population dynamics; Population genetics; Population genomics; Predation; Selection, Genetic; snow; Snow leopards; species; Survival; Taxonomy; Threatened species; viability; Tibetan Plateau; Tien Shan Mountains; Mongolia; Himalaya Mountains; China; Tajikistan; Russia; Himalayan region; Asia; EPAS1; Genetic structure; Genomic diversity; Snow leopards; Deleterious variants; Population genomics

Long-term persistence of species with low genetic diversity is the focus of widespread attention in conservation biology. The snow leopard, Panthera uncia, is a big cat from high-alpine regions of Asia. However, its subspecies taxonomy, evolutionary history, evolutionary potential, and survival stra...